Holyhead is one of those all too rare sea angling locations where not only is the serious any weather boat fishing for tope, spurdog and smoothhound absolutely first class, but the sheltered water inshore stuff too can be equally impressive when getting offshore is hampered by bad weather. Seasoned boat anglers will know only too well that flat calm days of the sort when the support photographs used here were shot are unfortunately far from the norm. Usually there is some degree of breeze which, when it gets too much at less fortunate venues, often results in a trip being cancelled the evening before or forcing it to be abandoned part way through. Worse still is the either way forecast where both skipper and anglers don't know which way to jump. Obviously the boat owner wants the business, but not at any cost. Then there is the disappointment felt by the anglers with no prospect of an alternative weekend date as the boats diary is booked solid. They too may have decisions to make hoping that the forecasters have got it all wrong. But generally speaking, strong wind forecasts tend to be reasonably accurate if a little off cue when arriving at times. Calling a trip on or off when the forecast is not cut and dried can be difficult for all concerned. Unless of course like ex-Welsh boat international Gethyn Owen skipper of 'My Way' you have alternative sheltered water options to offer a party who may well decide that spending the day fishing inshore is preferable to not going afloat at all.
The prevailing wind reaching the west coast of Britain has a tendency to come from the south west due to the path generally taken by Atlantic low pressure systems brewing up along America's north east coast before tracking across and pounding the UK. And while Holy Island, which is attached to the main island of Anglesey by a short causeway, is arguably one of the more exposed locations when a south westerly wind is blowing, the town of Holyhead itself is actually situated on the sheltered side with its 700 acre harbour protected by almost two miles of breakwater, the outer edge of which, along with a range of inshore deep water rocky coves and points all the way around to South Stack, can be perfectly fishable on a strong southerly, and on a south-westerly certainly around as far as North Stack. Marks over on the other side of Holyhead Bay can often also be reached, including Church Bay which has a well deserved reputation for the quality of its smoothhound fishing. Staying inshore for pollack, coalfish, wrasse, conger, dabs, dogs and huss as an alternative to other plans might not suite everyone, particularly if the original intention had been to book 'My Way' for say a big tope trip out in Holyhead Deep. The important thing however is that there is a fall back situation available, unlike at a great many other venues around the country where charter boat skippers and their clients are given no alternative choices at all.
It was during a settled spell in mid April that I got the nod from Gethyn that the weather was looking good for a start of the season run out with a bunch of his regulars to take a look at what the fishing from just off the breakwater around to South Stack can produce. And even then the weather had its say. With high pressure and light easterlies forecast, the plan was to fish on the Friday. That unfortunately had to be abandoned due to too much wind. The following day Gethyn was able to take the boat out, but residual swell and still a bit too much wind put a few restrictions on that trip. Then on the Sunday when I eventually got there, the sea was like a mirror bathed in beautiful warm dawn to dusk sunshine. We literally could have fished any of the marks available to the Holyhead boats. But, as I said, it was still early season with the main summer marks still waiting for the tope and smoothhounds deliveries to appear. Another reason then to be appreciative of the inshore potential which does tend to kick off a little earlier than the offshore stuff, and keeps going all the way through until Christmas, around which time there can be some interesting inshore conger fishing from wrecks lying just off the harbour mouth.
In the party were Welsh boat international Jon Law and team manager Bob Roberts who use situations like this to practice their speed fishing skills. International duty is all about getting the most out of a pre-selected situation which often means fishing for the kind of stuff pleasure anglers might otherwise turn their noses up at. Consistency is the key to competition success, and while some might argue that fishing carries a large element of luck, generally speaking, the harder these lads work and the more practice they put in, the luckier they seem to get. So being put into a small fish large variety situation as is so often the case over inshore heavy ground marks is excellent training. Not that every fish is necessarily going to be small, because better fish mixed amongst them are regularly there for the taking too. Some of these marks, and in particular the bottom of the drop off along the base of the outer breakwater have produced some very big ballan wrasse and pollack at times going in to double figures, fish which would be equally as welcome offshore. So with that in mind, Geth eased 'My Way' almost to within spitting distance of the breakwater masonry where we started a series of very short drifts down the bouldery slope to its base, then back in for another run.
Catching wrasse and pollack over heavy ground is not the most difficult job in the world. Catching them consistently while staying out of trouble for as long as possible thereby maximising the opportunity is another matter, which is why it was interesting to see the competition lads in action and compare their approach to that of the pleasure anglers. The bait, which was fresh ragworm, was there for everyone to share, so no excuses on that score. The main difference lay in the subtleties of presentation and tactics, with the competition lads most certainly setting the pace as you would expect. But not only did they catch more fish, they lost less tackle into the bargain and therefore less fishing time which has a direct correlation to the numbers of fish caught. From what I could see, everyone was fishing their baits on droppers strung out above the lead. On the drift over heavy ground it would be foolish in the extreme to have done otherwise. Jon and Bob however were using small strong carp hooks attached to droppers of maybe 12 inches in length with a small bead or attractor on the snood just above the hook. The ragworms were used whole nicked on to the hook through the head with the bulk of their length hanging free. Obviously the strength of the tide determines the size of the lead, but not its shape or the way it is attached. Ball leads with attachment loops were quite popular, as were bomb shapes painted in bright colours such as yellow, white and red. Lead changes were also frequently made as the run of the tide changed so as to have just sufficient weight on the end to maintain bottom contact, but never too much. These were attached to the clip at the bottom of the trace using paper clips as weak links.
Jon was letting his lead touch bottom then very slowing easing it away for a few turns to tease bites before letting it back down again for a repeat. The boat was drifting down the slope combined with those few spool turns was sufficient for much of the time to keep the business end of things well out of harms way without working it clear of the fish. To some extent wrasse don't mind coming up off the bottom a short distance, while pollack will at times following a moving bait well up into mid water before making a grab. I've even had them come up to just under the boat where in calm conditions you can actually watch them take. Amazing stuff. The thing with pollack and slowly moving baits is not to strike. Let them grab and kick for bottom which will set the hook for you. But you need to have the drag wound back sufficiently to let them run because for their size these are very powerful fish, even at the smaller end of the scale. I also noted on the day that three or four of the lads, including Jon and Bob were using very light rods, though not especially to get the maximum fight from the fish. These were 4 metre long Triana Invaders from Italy which a lot of competition anglers on the international scene are now carrying as part of their armoury because of their extreme sensitivity for bite detection. Getting more scrap from a fish after hooking up it seems is merely a coincidental bonus. Interestingly, these rods are telescopic with a range of inter-changeable tips, and if I understood things right, they need not be run out to full length to be used. Jon and Bob in particular were singing its praises having also taken some pretty sizeable specimens as well as increased numbers of fish using them. Anyone interested in taking a look at this rod should go to the Triana website on www.triana.it
I was surprised and impressed by both the numbers and the quality of the pollack tucked in tight up to the breakwater. There is something of a widely held view amongst a lot of boat anglers that increasing distance from shore and water depth in some way directly relates to bigger and better numbers of fish which quite clearly isn't necessarily always the case, particularly with pollack and wrasse. The rock marks further around at North Stack and later at South Stack also produced good numbers of fish. But what I noticed there was a slight switch in emphasis away from the pollack to more of a mixed bag including bigger numbers of ballan wrasse as well as other species such as coalfish. A few weeks on and that variety would have been even more noticeable with cuckoo, corkwing and goldsinny wrasse coming into reckoning along with more coalfish and mackerel. And if Geth gets the chance to put the anchor down and the ragworm bait and small hooks are upgraded to bigger hooks, heavier mono for the traces, and either fish or squid baits, then dogs and some very good bull huss are also likely to put in a show. The dogs were well established for the summer on this particular day, and while we also managed to boat several huss, like the wrasse and mackerel, an increase in their numbers would also most certainly have benefited from a few more weeks.
One of Holyhead's major claims to fame is the quality of its tope, spurdog and smoothhound fishing which if we are honest is probably the main reason why most anglers book trips from the venue in the first place. Tope and smoothhounds are fairly widespread species around much of the country. Less so the spurs which are only really just starting to recover after the hammering they took at the hands of the long liners some years ago. What sets Holyhead apart from the competition is the specimen quality it regularly produces for all three of those species with the Welsh records for the trio, which were all catch and release, having been taken aboard 'My Way' since 2005. The tope and spurs need settled weather and small tides as they are found several miles offshore in Holyhead Deep. But for the smoothhounds, bigger tides and shorter sailing distances are the order of the day, with the chance of some extremely big fish tucked very close in to the shelter of the shore when a strong southerly or south-easterly might rule heading off totally out of the question. It depends as much on wind direction as strength, and also on the timing of the trip. May see's the start of the smoothhound fishing inshore, and to get the best from it you do need a bit of tide and a lot of peeler crabs for bait. So that is another option that might present itself as an alternative to the close in heavy ground fishing, and what an option with smoothhound caught every year topping the magical 20 pound mark.
Contact Details
Tel. 01248 716315 or mobile 07971 942046
email: gethyn@goangling.co.uk
www.goangling.co.uk
